
From our fabulous News Hawks!
Have you seen a TG-related news story online or in your local paper? Send it in to TGF and become a News Hawk! Don't assume we know everything that's out there, because you are our eyes and ears. To file a story, send it in to Cindy .
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UK BBC Crew Caught in Drag
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker
via Reuters
May 22, 1998
YEMEN - The image called to mind by the British Broadcasting Corporation
isn't generally one of men in drag, but a three-man
BBC crew being held in Yemen were caught disguised as women. The men had
hoped the traditional all-covering black garments would hide them from
police as they exceeded their official authorization to enter secretly an
area the government had deemed unsafe for them in order to pursue a story
about kidnapping.
TG Hate Bill Passes
via UPI
May 27, 1998
SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Assembly has passed
(Wednesday) a bill aimed at toughening prosecution of gender-related
hate crimes. The bill now advancing to the Senate would clarify that
hate crimes include those aimed at victims who dress like or behave like
the opposite sex. Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, says few
district attorneys are pursuing charges related to attacks on
transgender victims under the state's hate crimes law.
(Contact: Jennifer Richard, Kuehl's spokeswoman 916-445-4956)
TG Racer Wants To Compete Again
Contributed by Susan Hall
via Newsweek
May 25, 1998
In the 1980s he was J. T. Hayes, up-and-coming NASCAR driver. Then he dropped out of sight. Now we know why. Hayes decided to switch gears in 1992, and now he's back and going by the name Terri O'Connell, racing's first transsexual driver, as far as we know.
"It was like, 'I really am a chick, and it's groovy'," O'Connell says, "but I wany to get back into racing." This weekend's Cannonball Run launches her bid for next year's Indy 500. Oh, and here's a little secret O'Connell wants the boys in the pit to know: when she raced as Hayes she liked to wear panties and pink toenail polish.
TGs Added To Plag Mission Statement
Contributed by JoAnn Roberts
The PFLAG Transgender Special Outreach Network (T-SON) is pleased to report
that the PFLAG National Board of Directors has accepted T-SON's request and
its own Bylaws Committee's recommendation to add transgendered to PFLAG's
mission statement by a unanimous vote. The vote now goes to the membership at
the PFLAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco on September 12, 1998.
T-SON was initiated 2 1/2 years ago at the Indianapolis national PFLAG
convention with the help of Sharon Stuart and many others and since then has
worked steadily for trans inclusion. It created an on-line support service
(tgs-pflag) and an organizational communiation link (PFLAG-T-SON) and operates
a telephone Help Line. With Jessica Xavier as chief author, it has published
a readable, inexpensive and succinct introduction to transgender issues,
called "Our Trans Childen". Over 8000 copies have been sold to date. T-SON
now has a Core Steering Committee and Regional Transgender Coordinators
(Tcords) across the country.
Over 160 PFLAG chapters now have local Tcords seeking to educate their
members on trans issues, especially with the help of local trans persons.
Many chapters already have transgendered members and some have speakers ready
and willing to meet with other groups. T-SON is planning an informal
educational gathering in San Francisco September 11-12, in conjunction with
the Annual meeting; all PFLAG and members and friends and all members of the
transgendered spectrum are cordially invited. T-SON is INclusive and still
learning!
While T-SON members are excited about the steady progress towards trans
education and inclusion within PFLAG, we wish to be especially respectful of
our collegues who are not yet with us on this issue. We look forward to
further sharing and dialog with them; we know there is much work yet to be
done, internally and in the larger community on behalf of our trans children
and friends.
For further information please contact T-SON's Co-Chairs, Nancy Sharp at
StressGone@aol.com or Mary Boenke, at maryboenke@aol.com. (or 540/890-3957).
Please feel free to repost.
Texas TG Attacked
via GenderPAC
May 23, 1998
VIOLENCE AGAINST TRANSPEOPLE
============================
AMARILLO, TX -"At 1:30 in the morning,
a loud noise woke me up," said transexual woman
Joy Richards. "There were pieces of glass and
blinds everywhere, with holes in the far wall."
She had been stalked the previous day. Now she
is afraid for her life.
Sixty percent of the transgender people
responding to GenderPAC's 1st National Survey on
Transviolence report that they have suffered
physical assault. The story of Ms. Richards puts
a human face on that number. On Friday, 22 May 98,
she noticed a man staring at her in a neighborhood
grocery store.
"I know the difference between lust and
stalking in a person's eyes," she said. "As I
left the store he was waiting, staring from his
pickup. He was looking back at me--glaring. I
continued walking; he drove around the corner
and passed by me slowly, still glaring. He went
up the street past my house and was still staring
at me as I crossed the street."
The police responded to her 1:30 a.m. 911
call. There were two bullet holes in the wall
opposite her window and two in the brick outside
her window. The police called the incident a
drive-by shooting. "Yes, I'm definitely moving,"
Ms. Richards said. "I just hope I can move soon
enough. I don't want to be a statistic."
One of GenderPAC's priorities is getting
gender-based hate crimes tracked in the Hate
Crimes Protection Act (HCPA) of 1998, currently
in Congress.
Femme Conference Comes to SF
via GLAADLINES
On May 30-31, San Francisco's
Harvey Milk Institute (HMI) will hold the first Femme Gender Conference:
Creating Community on the Frontier of Gender. With a keynote address by
writer and native rights activist Chrystos and panelists including Kate
Bornstein, Karen Bullock-Jordan, Lani Ka'ahumanu, JoAnn Loulan and Mark
Silver, the conference aims to promote exploration and discussion of gender
issues, and is expecting hundreds of artists, activists, academics and
others from around North America to examine femme identity, culture and
history. For more information contact Kevin Schaub (HMI Executive Director)
at (415) 552-7200.
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